Shaking conveyer system



May 9, l1950 w. Hl-:RoLD 2,507,251

SHAKING CONVEYER SYSTEM INVENTOR May 9, 1950 l v w. l.. HERoLD 2,507,251

SHAKING CONVEYER SYSTEM Filed Dec. 14, 1945 s sheetssheet 2 A INVENTOR \/\olJcexLlfetfoldA i WM5@ May 9, 1950 w. l.. HERoLD 2,507,251

SHAKING CONVEYER SYSTEM Filed DBC. 14, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Troug hline Driving pislon M La I 1 le 2 5 "L9 u l F\224-" -4- Sequence l Sequence Connol Valve 46 45 Control Va we Pressure Relle Valve INVENTOR Waller LfHerold.

Patented May 9, 1950 UNITED STAT ES PATENT OFFICE SHARING CGNVEYER.SYSTEMv WalterL. Herold, Scranton, Pa.

ApplicationDecember 14, 1945; Serial No. 635,038V

(Cl. I98-220) Claims.

This invention relates. to.- shaking conveyors, particularly to means for drivingv a dependent shaker troughline from a distant troughiine drive through fluid carried in conduits, the system being of such nature that the dependent troughline is driven in unison with the action of the main troughline driveno matter what may be the angular disposition or arrangement of the dependent troughline relative` to the main troughline.

There are many situationswhereit is impractical to locate power. drive means at. the place where the troughline. itseli isflocated; For example, the re hazard may har the. use of the power drive means. at the. troughline location. Usually this power means includes an electric motor and. aspark from the motor, may ignite inflammable gas. Or the space in which the troughline is located. may bek toov small tov permit the installation oi power. drive means, this being a relatively large andsomewhat complex apparatusnecessary to produce the. particular motion requiredto cause thetroughlineto move material in a given direction.

The present invention provides. means for transferring drive motionin agreat variety of ways toa dependent' troughline regardless of its location anddisposition.. For example, a passageway may have a turn which is too sharp for a continuous length of. troughline. Here the troughline may be made in separate sections with one driven `from the other: by the interposition of relay drive meansaccordingfto the present invention. There have :been previous proposals for drivingone conveyor line from another which is disposed at an angle relative thereto but such drive transfer devices have been wholly mechanical in nature involving'such mechanisms as racks and gears or cablesand pulleys which required the two troughlines to be disposed very close together and in a denite position when once iixed by theconstruction selected.

Again the present invention provides that a number of dependent troughlines may be driven from a single power drive. means, either in series or in parallel ora combination of these.

The invention provides for making a drive connection into any given troughline and therefrom driving a dependent troughline-which may be disposed in any position relative thereto. Any number of dependent drives. may be inserted into a single` troughline. within the limits of power applied thereto. And to any one of these dependent troughlines similar relay` drive connections may be. applied.

One exemplary embodiment of the invention isV illustrated. in. thev accompanying drawings. wherein:

Fig. l is a sectional. elevation. of apparatus according to the present invention installed in `a mine and wherein a plurality of dependent troughlines.. are driven zby relay power means from .a main troughline;

Fig. 2 isan enlarged elevation, partly insection, of a relay hydraulic device connected to a troughline, either for adrivingor driven troughline;

Fig..3 isa horizontal sectiontaken on the line 3`.-,3.of.Fig. 2;.

Fig. 4 isa transversesection taken on theline 4-.-4 of Figz; and

Fig. 5 is. a diagram. of the relay drive uid system.

As shownin Figi, a main shaking conveyor troughline. lilly may be disposed. in a principal passageway Il. This. passageway may be vof sufficient sizeV andy suiciently free from spark-ignitable. gases.y to. permit` the main. power drive unit to be. mounted' therein. Thisy drive unit is well known andrequires no. illustration for an understanding of. the invention.

An Yauxiliary or dependent shakingl conveyor troughline; l2V may.A be disposed in a smallerV passageway I3 ata distance -from the-main troughline. The.. dependent troughlinemay be at any angle or positiomrelative to the main troughline. Itis shown above, to one side of, and extending laterally from the main troughline. It discharges. into. a. chute Illp which in turn discharges. into the maintroughline.

Another auxiliary or dependenttroughline l5 is shown inv another passageway I6. The conveying arrangement. of this dependent conveyor l5 relative to the mainoonveyor is not shown. It may discharge into the main conveyor directly or. indirectly, or it may discharge elsewhere. For presentpurposes it is suflicientto note that it is ldriven by a powerk relay system from one of the other troughlines illustrated, here the main. one l0. It could, of course, be driven from the troughlinel I2 if desired -by connecting the relay power unit to. thisinstead of to the main troughline.

Eachrelay drive system includes a driven cylinderfand-pistonunit 2.0, a driving cylinder-andpiston unit 2|, and' exible conduit lines 22- connectedbetweenthem.. The driven unit is pumplike incharacter;v while. the drivingunit may be compared to a motor. They work in unison, the motor beingA driven by uid reciprocating in the conduits. Practically the only difference between the driven or pump unit and the driving or motor unit is that the latter is made of enough greater capacity than the former to compensate for piston and joint leakage and exible conduit expansion. The illustration and description of one will serve for both.

Each such unit may be referred to as a reciprocating hydraulic and one of the relatively moving parts is connected to a xed anchorage and the other is connected to the driving or driven part, for example a troughline. Here the cylinder is shown to be mounted on a base 25 which is held against the floor when convenient by jacks 21 braced against the ceiling. The rods 28 of piston 29 are connectedvto a bridge 3Q which can be attached to a troughline in any convenient manner, either along a section or a joint between sections.

The bridge may be connected to the troughline in any suitable way. For example, it may carry brackets to which anchor bolts 35 are secured, and the troughline may be provided with brackets 31 which are secured to or by the bolts. If two troughline sections are connected at the bridge, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, the brackets of each may be shorter than the space between brackets 35 of the bridge but together or with fillers 353 are long enough to completely i'lll the space and prevent end play.

Guide rods 39 operating in guides l0 may be attached to the bridge to keep it and its piston in proper position. Both the piston rods 28 and the guide rods 39 may be attached to the bridge through the interposition of depending portions 4l secured to the bridge. Endwise protruding extensions 5.2 may be provided for direct power drive connection to the bridge when desired.

One relay operating system is shown in Fig. 5. Here the driven piston 29 of the pump-like hydraulic device 2D is understood to be connected to a power drive, commonly a power-driven troughline. It forces fluid, such as oil, which is relatively inexpansible, alternately through one of the other of the conduits 22 connected to opposite ends of its cylinder 25. The fluid flows alternately to the opposite ends of the troughline driving cylinder 2| causing the piston 29 therein to move in unison with the piston 29 of the cylinder 2U.

If leakage and other factors could be neglected the cylinder and conduits might simply be filled with liquid and the reciprocation of the driven piston would cause corresponding reciprocation of the driving piston. But because leakage cannot be neglected the cylinder 20 of the driven piston is made somewhat larger than the cylinder 2| of the driving piston, and certain auxiliary equipment is added to cause fluid to be circulated to and from a sump instead of directly between cylinders. In conduits 22 sequence control valves 46 are interposed, these valves es` sentially comprising piston operated spring opposed valves which cause fluid to be returned to the sump through return conduits l? instead of being returned to the cylinder 2D. The valves are operated against their springs by fluid from the other side of the system, the fluid owing through cross connection conduits 68. Excess pressure relief valves 49 are provided in relief conduits 50 connecting the conduits 22 and 47. Fluid flows from the sump to the cylinder 2D through supply conduits 5I, check valves 52 being provided therein to prevent back-flow into the sump.

The relief valves can be used to regulate the length of stroke of the driven conveyor line in order to adjust its carrying capacity to that of the conveyor which it serves.

The installation and operation of the apparatus will be clear from the foregoing description. It will be seen that a piston-cylinder device may be connected into `any conveyor line at any desired point and connected by fluid-filled flexible conduits with afcompanion piston-cylinder device. When properly connected the reciprocation of one line will produce matched recprocation of the other line.

While one embodiment of the invention has been described for purposes of illustration it will be apparent that there may be various embodiments within the limits 0f the prior art and the scope of the subjoined claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Shaking conveyor mechanism comprising in combination, a rst reciprocating conveyor troughline, a double-acting reciprocating element of a luid actuated piston-cylinder device connected to the rst troughline, a second poweroperated reciprocating conveyor troughline, a double-acting reciprocating element of a fluiddelivering piston-cylinder device connected to a second troughline, and iiexible fluid-filled conduits between the opposite ends of the pistoncylinder devices establishing a nuid drive between them to cause them and their troughline to reciprocate in unison.

2. Shaking conveyor mechanism comprising in combination, a plurality of spatially separated shaking troughline conveyors, and iuid relay means including paired driven and driving pistoncylinder devices, one driven by one conveyor and the other driving the other conveyor and having a conduit carried reciprocating uid drive therebetween whereby the conveyors are caused to move in unison when one of them is power driven.

3. Shaking conveyor mechanism comprising in combination, a plurality of spatially separated shaking troughline conveyors, and fluid relay means including paired driven and driving pistoncylinder devices, one driven by one conveyor and the other driving the other conveyor and having a conduit carried reciprocating fluid drive therebetween whereby the conveyors are caused to move in unison when one of them is power driven, the capacity of the fluid delivering piston-cylinder device being greater than the companion fluid-operated device, a sump from which the fluid-delivering device withdraws fluid, and means for diverting fluid returning from the driven device from the fluid delivering device to said sump.

4. Shaking conveyor mechanism comprising in combination, a first shaking conveyor troughline, a reciprocating liquid operated driving device therefor, a second power operated shaking conveyor troughline, a reciprocating liquiddelivering device operated by said second troughline, and liquid-lilled conduits between the reciprocating devices establishing a liquid drive connection between them to cause the iirst to reciprocate in unison with the second.

5. Shaking conveyor mechanism comprising in combination, a driving piston hydraulic device connected to one conveyor line, a driven piston hydraulic device connected to another conveyor line, interconnecting iiuid conduit lines between the hydraulic devices, a sump, return lines to the sump, supply lines from the sump to the driving piston hydraulic device, a by-pass line from the interconnecting lines to the sump, and a fluid 5 control valve in the bypass line 4for adjusting the action of the driven hydraulic device to the action of the driving hydraulic device.

WALTER L. HEROLD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

Number 6 UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Jones Sept. 1, 1931 Luke Jan. 31, 1933 Tafel Sept. 17, 1940 Bebinger Jan. 20, 1942 McCarthy Mar. 16, 1943 Morgan Aug. 17, 1943 

